China capped the year winning the Women's U23 World Championship Open with a straight set win over the Dominican Republic

Tijuana, Mexico, October 12, 2013 – China completed a successful voyage around the women’s age-group categories capturing the gold medal at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s U23 World Championship Open with a straight-set (25-21, 25-20, 26-24) victory over the Dominican Republic on Saturday.

The triumph was the third for the Chinese female teams in this year following the titles attained in Thailand (Girls U18) and Czech Republic (Women’s U20).

China won all their six matches in the competition held in the cities of Mexicali and Tijuana and their accomplished setter and captain Yao Di was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the event.

“The match was played at a very high level and could have gone to either side,” China’s coach Xu Jiande commented. “Tonight the luck worked in our favor.”

“The silver medal has a great value for us as a small country,” Dominican Republic’s coach Marcos Kwiek said. “We finished ahead of big countries like USA, Japan and Brazil and these girls have worked hard during all these years.”

Liu Yanhan and Zhang Xiaoya each recorded 17 points to lead the Chinese team, followed by Yang Zou with 9 points and Gu Xinwei and Wang Qi with 8 apiece.